I am glad that Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association president Kevin Decesare (TMID, 19 August) has at last managed to highlight the main problem with the Maltese tourist industry, that of lack of flights from convenient airports.

I live in Northern Ireland within a 30-minute drive of Belfast International Airport and Belfast City Airport, yet in order to get a direct flight to Malta I have to drive all the way to Dublin Airport in the South of Ireland. This, quite frankly, is a joke.

Note the fact that I said direct flight. I can get an indirect flight from Belfast, which means spending half a day sitting at Manchester or Gatwick but there is no way I would ever consider doing this as it is basically wasting my holiday time.

I love Malta and come over every year for a fortnight’s holiday in Gozo. In fact I will be back in October. But if it gets to the point where I can no longer fly directly to Malta then I will be looking for another holiday destination, along with many others.

James A. Tyrrell

County Antrim

N. Ireland